The American dream of homeownership was never intended for everyone. One hundred years ago, fewer than half of U.S. households owned their home. By 1980, the ownership rate was up to 65.6 percent, and for the next 17 years, it fluctuated between 63.8 percent and 65.7 percent.

That was all the market would bear because not everyone has the wherewithal to own a home, and banks refused to write mortgages unless applicants put up a substantial down payment and proved their ability to repay. While banks operated under sensible rules, delinquency and foreclosure rates were confined to low, narrow ranges: 3.1 percent to 5.8 percent for delinquencies and 0.33 percent to 3.7 percent for foreclosures, according to census data.

Late in the Clinton administration, however, then-Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., and then-Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., fronted a conspiracy by Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, the Department of Housing and Urban Development and the Office of Management and Budget to exploit Jimmy Carter's Community Development Act. Under the threat of civil litigation and criminal charges, lenders were forced to meet mortgage quotas, the untenable risks they were taking be damned.

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